Final score: Bradley 92 Missouri S&T 66

[Da Coach]

Bradley's next game is Tuesday, Nov. 16, against Division II Missouri S&T at 7 pm in Carver Arena.

The game is on ESPN3- Direct link- https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/...a-bd618eb0291e
Radio- WMBD AM 1470 and 100.3 FM- https://www.1470wmbd.com/
Live Stats- https://bradleybraves.com/sidearmstats/mbball/summary
Chat room- www.chatzy.com/bradleyfans

The Missouri S&T Miners, from Rolla, MO, are 0-1 after losing their home opener Friday to Trevecca Nazarene 79-72.
https://minerathletics.com/news/2021...on-opener.aspx

Missouri S&T are a Division II school, and a member of the Great Lakes Valley Conference. They were picked 3rd in the GLVC West-
https://minerathletics.com/news/2021...ball-poll.aspx

The game at Bradley is an exhibition game for MSTU.
They were 4-16 last season (all games were conference games), and they shot 31.6% from three.
They were 6-20 in 2019-20, and 4-16 in the GLVC.

Roster- https://minerathletics.com/sports/me...ketball/roster

Schedule- https://minerathletics.com/sports/me...tball/schedule

Stats after 1 game- https://static.minerathletics.com/cu...e.htm#TEAM.IND

Bradley stats- https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sit...1/pdf/cume.pdf

[Da Coach]

Game preview from BUBraves.com

https://bradleybraves.com/news/2021/11/15/mens-basketball-braves-continue-action-at-carver-arena-host-missouris-t-tuesday.aspx

[Da Coach]

Ville and Ja'Shon are both in uniform.

[Da Coach]

Final score- Bradley 92 Missouri S&T 66
Bradley is now 1-0 with their starting lineup intact.

Stats- https://bradleybraves.com/sidearmstats/mbball/media

[Da Coach]

Overall, Bradley played better, though some of it was the competition. The 3-point shooting is still not where this team is capable of. There were only 14 turnovers, but there were many more tipped passes that did not result in turnovers, including several muffed fast breaks. Rebounding was a bright spot- Bradley outrebounded Mo S&T 57-29.Ville looked good, Ville looked good, as did Ja'Shon, Roberts, Leons, Mast, and even Boya. Connor Hickman had a rough game shooting, but Jayson Kent had 10 points & 7 rebounds and played nice defense.
The shooting needs to get a lot better to compete in the Virgin Islands, but there were many encouraging signs tonight, IMO.

[Big Mike]

Good for the Braves to get off the snide with a W. Good contributions from many, getting better at FTs and 3 pt shooting will allow the Braves a chance against most competition. Would have liked seeing Hannah play in the 1st half.....we are gonna need him sooner rather than later. Really impressed with how good Max Ekono handles the ball for a 6'7 player.

[ihatetea]

I was not impressed with that showing. We should have stomped this team but we never really put them away. Our offensive guard play is our biggest weakness to me. Roberts has been adequate, Hickman is okay and promising considering he’s a freshman, while Ville looked like Ville. If Connor and Ville make a couple threes they’ll be fine.

I’m disappointed in Howell though. His defense isn’t impressive and the fact he doesn’t look to score lets the opponents play off of him. But what really is troubling is the high risk passes he throws so frequently. And when he completes passes they are offline just enough to hurt his teammates rhythm. Henry had to completely stop to catch a pass from Howell and halted a fast break opportunity. I hope we see more minutes from Ekono moving forward. He also hasn’t looked to score much, but he takes care of the ball and is gigantic on the perimeter on defense. Maybe he could help shore up our three point coverage.

There is a lot of improvement needed if we are going to be competitive in the valley.

[Tommy]

Agree with all of the previous comments. Guard play is again going to need some work, but it was nice to have Ville back and agree that Ekono looks like he's going to be fun to watch in the future. Roberts and Howell both play very fast and reckless, so hoping to see them slow it down a bit and play more under control in the future, but I do like the speed they offer.

Leons continues to quietly put up numbers without being flashy, Ville and JaShon added some intensity, and Ari played his best game thus far. Still, giving up 66 points to a DII school is not ideal and I'd have felt better had we won by 30, but a win is a win. Best part of the game was the stretch in the 1st half where we had about 7 consecutive dunks or layups. JaShon, in particular, really took over the game.

The first 3 games have made me realize that this is a relatively young team with a lot of new pieces, so I think patience is definitely needed. It's possible we could be similar to the 2018-19 team that lost 9 out of 11 games during an early season stretch (including a loss to Eastern Illinois, as well as losing their first 5 conference games) only to go on to win the MVC tournament. Do I think this team is going to win the tourney, probably not, but I won't discount BW's ability to coach and improve a young team.

Lastly, one big takeaway is the obvious hole left by Eli. It is really apparent right now just how dominant he could be on both ends of the court and when you were having trouble scoring, he would just get it done. Not sure we have anyone that can and will step into his shoes, so let's hope that this team has enough talent overall to make up for his loss. Hope he's doing well. I sure do miss seeing him play in a Braves uniform.

[Da Coach]

Game report-

https://bradleybraves.com/news/2021/11/16/mens-basketball-bradley-basketball-runs-past-missouris-t-92-66.aspx

Official box score-

https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sites/bradley.sidearmsports.com/documents/2021/11/16/Bradley_92_Missouri_S_T_66.pdf

Attendance- 3,450